Sigfrido Bartolini (Pistoia, 21 January 1932 – 24 April 2007) was a painter, engraver and writer, a highly regarded critic and polemicist.
At just fifteen he took part in — and won a prize at — an exhibition promoted by the Municipality of Pistoia: the opening step of an extraordinarily rich exhibition career. Over the years many solo shows followed in various Italian cities — Rome, Milan, Turin, Venice, Florence — and abroad — the United States, France, Spain, Germany, Greece — presented and reviewed by the most authoritative critics.
In order to sketch a concise portrait that captures his activity, Bartolini’s biographies are forced to string together a series of nouns — painter, engraver, writer:
Painter: from monotype to fresco, watercolour and oil painting, all the way to the painting “of light”, as historiated stained-glass windows are called in the medieval tradition.
Engraver: for his exceptional work as a woodcut artist (suffice it to recall the monumental edition of Pinocchio illustrated with 309 woodblocks) and as an etcher and lithographer.
Writer: this refers to the original writing of books such as Chiesa di Cristo & altri generi (1967) or Lettere di San Bernardino da Siena a un quotidiano (1969), to his work as an art critic and polemicist in the famous book La Grande Impostura, and to his studies of the graphic art of some great twentieth-century artists — Soffici, Sironi, Rosai, Lega, Cremona.
In 1966, together with Barna Occhini, he founded the fortnightly magazine «Totalità», heir to «La Voce» and «Lacerba», to which he contributed original writings and woodcuts. A tireless experimenter with techniques, Bartolini illustrated dozens of volumes, including works by Bernard of Clairvaux, Vieira, Petrocchi, Serpieri, Savinio, Cattabiani, Nemi, Beatrice di Pian degli Ontani and, for the Jubilee of 2000, the Gospel.
In 1983 he oversaw the printing of the monumental edition of Pinocchio commissioned by the Carlo Collodi National Foundation for the centenary of its publication, illustrating it with more than three hundred black-and-white and colour woodcuts, the fruit of twelve years of work. The records of that work — preparatory studies, drawings, engraved woodblocks and printing proofs — became a successful exhibition that travelled the world.
A writer, critic and widely followed polemicist (he was an intensive contributor to the newspapers «L’Indipendente», «Il Giornale» and «Libero»), part of his writings on art were collected in the volume La Grande Impostura (Polistampa, 2002). He is the author of monographs on the graphic work of Soffici, Sironi, Innocenti, Lega, Rosai, Cremona, Boldini and others.
Between March and April 2000 the Lombardy Region devoted a large retrospective to him in Milan, at the Triennale palace. His graphic works are held at the Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe of the Uffizi, at the Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe of the Vatican Library, at the National Library of Paris and at the “Albertina” museum in Vienna.
His final work is the Fourteen Great Historiated Stained-Glass Windows (the 7 Works of Mercy and the 7 Sacraments) for the church of the Immacolata in Pistoia, inaugurated in December 2006.
